New wireless Internet expands Milledgeville’s horizons

Milledgeville residents have a new option for wireless Internet service. Clearwire Communications has started providing a low-cost Internet service option covering about 70 percent of the city.

According to its Web site, Clearwire strives to be simple, affordable, portable, fast and reliable. City planner Russell Thompson has been the project manager and helped out with the grant funds.

“We sure do hope that it will be successful,” Thompson said. “The mobility and fast speed will be a huge advantage.”

The original plan for Milledgeville going wireless was part of a 2006 plan to stimulate the economy in rural areas. A working group was put together and a grant was created.

The city of Milledgeville was awarded $862,000 to help with the start up of wireless Internet, the largest grant of six cities.

After the grant was awarded, the working group hired a consultant to find a service provider that was interested in the project. After several companies declined, Clearwire agreed to provide the services. The company already has projects in Las Vegas and Atlanta.

The wireless signals will be provided by a small device that looks similar to a flash drive. Once the wireless modem is plugged into a laptop, the services will automatically be recognized. Since Clearwire is now in Atlanta, Milledgeville residents will also be able to use their wireless service in Atlanta, too. As long as the device is connected to the laptop, Internet service will be available in any Clearwire service area.

Interim CIO Ed Boyd was part of the working group involved in the numerous city meetings that were held regarding the wireless Internet project.

“I am excited for the flexibility it will provide,” Boyd said. “It might have potential for GCSU too, perhaps for writers at soccer games at West Campus. This won’t be replacing the GCSU wireless network, but it might be cheaper to buy from Clearwire for that purpose because it is very expensive to install new equipment.”

Not only will Clearwire benefit residents, it will also benefit the police, as officers will be able to connect laptops in their cars for direct access to the Internet.

Clearwire will start out using five radio towers to broadcast a signal in Milledgeville. Once the project is up and running, the company plans to invest in more towers to create a broader signal.

Clearwire sees Milledgeville a favorable market because of the large number of students from the Atlanta area that attend GCSU. Those students could be more likely to use Clearwire because they will be able to have wireless Internet in both cities.

Junior Cameron Wellman is excited to see how many students will take advantage of the new wireless Internet service.

“I think it is a really good idea to go wireless in a college town,” Wellman said. “I might get it after a few months if it is successful.”

Clearwire planned to have advertising tables around campus this past week to try to persuade students and staff to buy their service. GCSU students and staff will get a special rate of $25 per month. GCSU is not endorsing the services.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 2 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry